German Government to Pay €30m to Gay Men Convicted Under Historical Laws

The German government has revealed that they will be paying more than 50,000 men who were jailed just for being gay.

The plan is to set aside €30m to compensate the people who were jailed for their sexuality under Paragraph 175, which was only disposed of in 1994.

Homosexuality was criminalised in Germany ever since 1871 when the country was formed, but was strengthened under the Nazi regime, who used it to convict thousands of men and send them to concentration camps.

This even continued after the war, as men were prosecuted and often lost their homes and jobs if their sexuality was discovered. The Nazi convictions were gotten rid off back in 2002, but until now there has been no pardon for those convicted after the war.

The initial announcement was made this year, however the draft will be formally announced soon.

According to Heiko Maas, German’s justice minister, compensation will be decided individually and sentence duration will also be taken into account.

Maas said: “We will never be able to remove these outrages committed by this country but we want to rehabilitate the victims. The convicted homosexual men should no longer have to live with the black mark of a criminal conviction.”